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Dexter Morgan
Dexter Morgan is a sociopathic serial killer who only targets other killers. During his day job, he works as a forensic blood spatter analyst with the Miami Metro Police Department. He is the biological son of Laura Moser and Joe Driscoll, as well as the biological brother of Brian Moser (aka the Ice Truck Killer). Dexter is the adoptive brother of Debra Morgan, and the adoptive son of Harry Morgan, a police captain who taught him to survive using the Code of Harry, and the husband of Rita Bennett. Together, they had a son, Harrison. Dexter has developed a detailed method of killing that has allowed him to evade detection. Dexter was the true Bay Harbor Butcher, although Sergeant James Doakes was framed for the crimes. Dexter has killed 67 people. Personality Dexter considers himself emotionally divorced from the rest of humanity; in his narration, he often refers to "humans" as if he is not one of them. Dexter makes frequent references to an internal feeling of emptiness, leading to many youthful attempts to "feel alive" (this was used more in the shows than the books). Dexter claims to have no feelings or conscience and that all of his emotional responses are part of a well-rehearsed act to conceal his true nature. He has no interest in romance or sex and he considers his relationship with Rita to be part of his "disguise." In the show he shows considerably more attachment and fondness for Rita than in the books. For example, in the first season he is afraid to have sex with her because he might lose her as a result; in the books he seems to view her more as a pet. There are chinks in Dexter's emotional armor, however. He acknowledges loyalty to family, particularly his dead foster father: "If I were capable of love, how I would have loved Harry." Since Harry's death, Dexter's only family is his sister, Debra Morgan, Harry's biological daughter. At the end of the first novel, Dexter admits that he cannot hurt Debra (and in an episode comically repeats in his head "I will not kill my sister" as she leaves his apartment a complete disaster when living with him) or allow Brian to harm her because he is "fond of her." He also appears to care more for Rita than he admits. Dexter likes children, finding them to be much more interesting than their parents. The flip side of this affection is that Dexter is particularly wrathful when his victims prey on children. In Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter realizes that Rita's son Cody is showing the same signs of sociopathology as Dexter himself did at that age, and looks forward to providing the boy with "guidance" similar to that which Harry provided him; in his way, he sees Cody as his own son. This also gives him a reason to continue his relationship with Rita who, as of Dearly Devoted Dexter, he is engaged to because of a misunderstanding. In the beginning of the third book, it has been shown that Cody is not the only one with dark impulses, as both children pressure Dexter to teach them. Dexter has come to accept his role as stepfather to both children very seriously in Dexter in the Dark, albeit in his typical fashion. For example, while on a stakeout, he begins to wonder if Cody had brushed his teeth before bed and if Astor had set out her Easter dress for photo-day at her school. These thoughts distract him while he is waiting for an intended victim, which thoroughly annoys him. Animals don't like Dexter, which can cause noise problems when Dexter stalks a victim who has pets. He is quoted as once having a dog who barks and growls at Dexter until he is forced to get rid of it, and a turtle, which hides in its shell until it dies of starvation rather than have to deal with Dexter. Early Life Dexter Morgan, (then Dexter Moser), was born only a few years after Brian Moser by parents Laura Moser and Joseph Driscoll. His mother, Laura, was involved in the drug trade and had a habit for painting her fingernails in different colours. Laura was a police informant for Harry Morgan, Dexter's eventual foster father and was also his lover, she was trying to get evidence against Santos Jimenez's boss. However, when Dexter was 3 years old, he and his brother Brian witnessed his mother die by the hands of three men (one of which was Santos Jimenez), along with 3 other people and was left, crying, in a pool of his mothers' blood in a shipping container, with his brother Brian. This is what led to his and his brothers' sociopathy and violent tendencies. However, Dexter soon after repressed this memory and only rememebers it later in his life (during Season 1). Brian, however, did not forget the massacre of his mother and was put in a mental institution for disturbed children and also grows up to be a serial killer. Harry Morgan was the first on the scene of the crime and took Dexter, guilt-ridden for breaking his promise that nothing would happen to Laura. However he leaves Brian, possibly because he wanted Dexter to forget his past, but according to Brian it was because he was too "messed up" to take. Harry adopted Dexter Moser and gave him the name Dexter Morgan. However later, when Dexter was 7, he spots Dexter's tendency to kill neighbourhood pets and presumes that Dexter is a sociopath and a budding serial killer with an innate need to kill. From this point Harry starts to give Dexter a code and trains him to cover his tracks and to not get caught and also gives him a moral code by which to live by. He decides to channel Dexter's urges in a positive direction and teaches him to be cautious, meticulous and an efficient killer and most of all to never leave any clues. He also teaches the boy how to fake human emotions and the natural reactions that are expected of him. The central part of this code are to only kill those who are deserving of death, such as killers. Slightly later, Dexter gets a large wound in his abdomen whilst climbing over a fence to get Debra (his adoptive sister)'s football. Hereby Harry discovers that he has a very special blood type and has to find a person with the same type, after searching for many alternatives he is forced to go to Dexter's biological father, a man who presumably blames Harry for the death of his wife, Laura, and gets his blood for Dexter. Dexter still has a scar from this event. In Dexter's teenage years, Debra starts to become envious of the time that Harry spends with Dexter, feeling that she is left out when he takes Dexter hunting and not her, when really it is so that he can fuel his serial killing needs into killing animals on the hunt. She even goes as far as saying: "Sometimes I almost wish that he had never brought you home!" but apologizes for it soon after. Harry constantly has to remind Dexter of the code during these years and has to even go as far as to stopping him from lashing out at a bully at school once. Doris Morgan, his adoptive mother died of cance when he was 16. She had been suspicious of Dexter and was the one who suggested that he be tested by a psychologist. When he reaches a sexually mature age he realises that he is uninterested in the opposite, or indeed any, sex and therefore needs instruction by his father on how to act with women. He started studying jujitsu at this age. Dexter was the top of his class in medical school but gave it up to become a forensics expert. When Dexter was 18, Harry fell ill of coronary artery disease and was confined to a hospital in which Harry spots a nurse, called Mary, who kills people by overdosing them on morphine, whereby Harry gives Dexter his "permission" to kill her which would turn out to be his first kill. Here he embedded several ritualistic qualities to his kills which he would come to do again and again, such as the strapping of the victim to some sort of long and flat object, and the covering of everything in sheets of plastic, but his trademark blood-slide collection would not begin here, only later would he start that particular ritual. Dexter's second victim was a murdering pimp called Juan Rinez. Juan was arrested but let off due to a faulty warrant and Harry is enraged by this fact and tries to convince himself that he was right in training him. However, when Dexter goes on to kill him, Harry accidentally walks in on him with the dismembered body parts of Juan Rinez and vomits and unbenknownst to Dexter, commits suicide because he couldn't face up to the reality of what he had trained his son to do. Only later does Dexter discover this however. Since then Dexter has killed at least 67 people including Mary, Juan Rinez, Alex Timmons, Gene Marshall and Cindy Landon. Season One At the start of Season 1, it is obvious that Dexter has settled into a steady life of ritualistic killing doubled with his life as a forensics blood splatter analyst. He is seen by his colleagues as a quirky lab geek and only one man, Sgt. James Doakes suspects him of being anything other than this. He maintains emotionless relationships in order to fit in with society and is constantly hunting for serial killers to satisfy his sadistic need to kill. At the start of the season, Brian, his long forgotten brother starts to send him friendly clues in the guise of messages as a form of friendly competition between them. He leaves puzzles in order to maybe trigger Dexter's memory of his past, such as the prostitutes with painted fingernails in homage to Laura Moser's habit and a room filled with blood, to remind him of his "birthplace". During which, Brian befriends Debra in order to get close to him under the name of Rudy Cooper. Meanwhile, Dexter struggles to keep his relationship with Rita sex-free, because he believes that if he has sex with her, she will feel his emotional dysfunctions and he starts to grow fond of her and doesn't want to blow it. Later, during a therapy session with Emmett Meridian (a future victim), he is put into a state of calm, wherein he remembers a small part of his past, seeing an image of a boy in blood. He becomes emotional and is able to sleep with Rita because of this, which makes the relationship more intimate. Come the end of the season, their relationship is very nearly normal. Later on, Brian leaves a room filled with the blood of prostitutes in order to remind him of his dark past and it opens up several memories of him in blood and later researches it and discovers that it was his mother whose blood he was in and that he not only has a brother but that his brother was with him during the massacre of his mother. But after he abducts his sister and tries to murder her he is forced to kill him for "the safety of his sister". He is very nearly heartbroken by this because he has killed the one person who truly saw him for what he was and didn't turn away from him. Season Two 38 days have passed, but Dexter is still mourning about his brother's death. He hasn't killed anyone either, because sergeant Doakes is trailing him. When the opportunity arises Dexter discovers that he can't kill anymore. Furthermore some treasure hunters discover Dexter's underwater cemetery and an experienced FBI agent comes to Miami to hunt Dexter down. Season Three Everything is going well for Dexter both in his relationship with Rita and his double life. However when Dexter kills someone he didn't intend to kill things soon change. ADA Miguel Prado brother of Dexter's newest victim becomes interested in him and Rita discovers that she is pregnant. Season Four In season four, he was searching for a serial killer dubbed "The Trinity Killer," actually being Arthur Mitchell. After he predicted Trinity's third kill, Dexter attempted to crash Trinity's murder. Dexter was unsuccessful in his attempted kill, but he did identify Trinity by following him home. They later met at a the church at which Arthur preaches, with Dexter under the alias "Kyle Butler." Dexter slowly gains Arthur's trust and waits for opportunities to catch him off guard. After letting go many chances to kill Mitchell, Dexter's real identity makes itself known to Trinity after he follows him to the station one day. By now Dexter knows that he has wasted too much time, yet when the opportunity presents himself to kill Mitchell, a minor car accident halts his plan. When he goes to get the unconcious Mitchell, he has already fled the van he was hiding him in. The next day Dexter is able to catch up with Trinity and kill him. When Dexter goes home to get his bag for his honeymoon with Rita, he finds her dead in the bathtub, the last work of Trinity. The last scene of season 4 shows Dexter carrying his bloodied son out of the bathroom with a confused look on his face. Notes * Dexter amuses himself with puns about his serial killing, at significant risk to himself. He bought animal tranquilizers using the name Patrick Bateman, the serial killer from American Psycho. His boat (purchased in the Early Cuts short series) is called Slice of Life. * Dexter takes virtually no countermeasures against leaving digital trails and electronic evidence. He frequently takes phone calls at or near the site of a kill. He also performs searches on potential victims and associates using his work computer. It's shown in Season 3 that at least some of these searches are logged; Miguel Prado discovers that Dexter searched for info on his brother Oscar Prado, and later that Maria LaGuerta searched for info on him as well. He also left Rita's GPS device in her minivan, which allowed Lila to track down Santos Jimenez's Everglades cabin and discover an imprisoned Sergeant Doakes as well as Dexter's secret life as a serial killer. * The young Dexter was played by Dominic Janes, while a teenaged Dexter is played by Devon Graye. * In preparation for his kills, he wears his trademark pants and long sleeve shirt. These clothes stay the same during all four seasons. *At the end of each season, he usually ends up killing someone important to him. He also changes his way to kill them. -Season 1: Brian Moser; Used Brian's own ritual to kill him, and mourned his death. -Season 2: Lila West; Used anesthetics to make her death painless. -Season 3: Miguel Prado; Killed him with a wire. -Season 4: Arthur Mitchell; Killed him with his old fashion trains, his favorite song, and with a Hammer which formed part of Arthur Mitchell's own ritual. Category:Characters Category:Season 1 characters Category:Season 2 characters Category:Season 3 characters Category:Season 4 characters Category:Main characters